Twitter's long night under an Elon Moon

Earlier this year, we learned that Elon Musk had made an offer to purchase Twitter. I had a few thoughts on the astrology back then, and shared it in a Twitter thread two weeks later. The chart for Musk's April 14 announcement follows.

Here's what I had to say about the announcement astrology at the time (with some minor immaterial edits to help readability):

The astrology of Musk's announcement gives us plenty of reason to suspect that the deal won't go through.

First, we have the final degree of a violent sign on an angle. This augurs a situation preparing to go from solid (due to Aquarius being fixed) to flexible (a polite way to say wishy-washy). And Mars is right on the asc. This was a brash move driven by a desire to dominate.

What's really striking to me is the exact opposition of the Moon and Jupiter/Neptune. This is a classic signature for exaggerated overtures done with dramatic flair, and loudness in the resulting press reaction.

Moon/Jupiter oppositions are not super-likely to follow through on commitments or promises. There's a tendency to rely too much on hope, or an expectation that things will simply "work out". Mutable signs are also known for wavering between things, and finding exit strategies.

Musk was heavily criticized for what was seen as a reckless plan to squander $44B. Notice the asc-ruler Saturn in the 12th, and the Sun in the 2nd moving between both malefics (besiegement). For what it's worth, the Sun in the 2nd is associated with wasting financial resources.

In terms of justification for that last comment, notice $TSLA's stumbling share prices: 20% of market capitalization wiped off the books since March, half of that reduction coming in the wake of Musk's announcement.

There's more to say, obviously (like how this the astrology features a Mars return for Musk, with Saturn transiting over his Mars, and this ascendant squaring his Saturn, and the South Node transiting his Jupiter, and this announcement's Moon falling right on his Pluto, etc.).

I think it's safe to say that this deal is anything but concluded, and may well be called off before it can be finalized.

Many have noted that Musk has made disparaging comments about Twitter execs and the platform itself since this announcement, which violates a clause in the buy-out agreement. This may be Musk's method for removing his offer from the table without having to outright rescind it – embarrassing for most of us, but perhaps not to someone who failed to deliver on a promise to end world hunger if a budget and plan was prepared.

It isn't surprising that Musk is going after Twitter execs with Mars on the angle during this announcement chart. Within weeks of the announcement, Mars will transit over this chart's Venus (ruler of the 8th), and where that tide is headed already feels semi-obvious.

Mars will station at 25° Gemini later this year, right around Halloween – that makes a T-square with the Moon/Jupiter-Neptune opposition, and I suspect we may see some revisiting of this story as that Mars will trine the announcement Mars and ascendant.

Turns out, the deal did go through.

I wasn't aware how legally binding the deal was, once things had been set in motion. But rumors of a takeover make a stock volatile, which can have a serious impact on investors and employees. If Elon didn't follow through on his promise to pay, he was to be on the hook for $1B USD.

But Elon did try just about everything he could to shut the deal down. He publicly harassed Twitter employees and C-level executives, violating the agreement's non-disparagement clause. He delayed and tried to re-negotiate a 30% discount on the $44B price tag. In September, he tried to argue that a payout to a whisteblower violated terms.

But in October, a judge ordered Musk to complete the deal by Oct 28, or face consequences for backing out. The deal was finalized before that deadline was reached.

Twitter's most dramatic natal chart feature is the Mars/Moon opposition (and the Moon's conjunct Pluto, for extra measure) – not only close in its exactitude, but putting the rulers of the preeminent angles (1st, 10th) in inimical configuration. This opposition feeds right into Musk's natal Venus. I think this purchase was simply too tempting for Musk, something that tickled his imagination; but when your Venus opens a portal to a Moon/Mars opposition, perhaps you start re-thinking whether this was what you thought you wanted in the first place.

There's precious little that's uplifting between Musk's nativity and the foundation chart for Twitter. Musk has his own opposition to mirror Twitters: his Saturn at 1° Gemini, opposing a Neptune/Jupiter conjunction (both retrograde). Should Musk behave like a dignified Saturn, there's plenty of productive play that could come of that contact – stability, rationalization of unnecessary services & bloat, etc. But Musk has been more immature and childlike in his behavior, and since his acquisition of Twitter, he's made his swipes and jabs public. The Saturn/midheaven combo is thus more likely to exact the costs of his heedlessness and clownery.

Elon said he wanted to purchase Twitter because he was concerned about free speech and content moderation policies on the platform. His recent behavior suggests that's not his true priority.

Twitter has become an indispensable tool in the proliferation of social movements, and for journalists. Media company Muck Rack surveyed 2,500+ journalists on how they did their job, and reported the following findings in their State of Journalism 2022 white paper: (a) nearly one-fifth of journalists get their news from Twitter; (b) four out of five journalists rank Twitter as their most valuable professional resource; and, (c) four out of five journalists intend to spend as much time on Twitter next year as they did this year, or more.

Communities using Twitter can effectively build their own Associated Press on the platform, reporting live news as it's developing – a useful vein for journalists. It's not surprising that the platform has grown into this use case, given Twitter's foundation chart. Mercury rules the 3rd and is placed in the 9th, and sits at the apex of the T-square formed with the Moon/Mars opposition. The Moon has a long-standing association with messengers and Mercury with journalists – given the strong emphasis on the Moon and Mercury, it's only natural that a business with a chart like this attracts the mercurial class.

But the mercurial class also includes the destabilizers, pranksters, mercenaries, and the insistent presence of Mars ensures the knaves are in attendance. Twitter's use of content moderation parameters helped curb the exploitation of the platform by trolls, racists, anti-Semitists, and various forms of overt harassment that had continues to plague the platform – in even higher number now that Musk has disbanded the content moderation team.

This platform has all the typical Mercury-Mars problems and never seems to be able to shake them fully. They become magnified by the sheer weight of Twitter's impact in social economies. Twitter's natal Mars is in Gemini, and that placement always reminds me of the founding chart of Babylon, and the bloodshed amongst brothers that was spilled in that city. Just have a look at how the company's founders treated each other, as reported by TheStreet.com:

Twitter founders Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey had a fraught relationship, to say the least. While beginning as friends, with Williams even choosing Jack as the person to lead Twitter, their relationship quickly soured. Williams became convinced that Dorsey lacked the experience to run the company. The consistent server crashes of the site's early years coupled with Dorsey taking time to pursue hobbies outside of work reportedly led Williams to take Dorsey aside and say, "You can either be a dressmaker or the CEO of Twitter."

Williams convinced Twitter's shareholders that Dorsey couldn't run the company, and they, in turn, informed Dorsey that he would have to step down as CEO for an essentially ceremonial role as a silent board member with Evan as his replacement.

The official narrative had been that a mutual agreement was reached where Dorsey would step down to perform other tasks in the company while the more-experienced Williams would steer the business side. In truth, Dorsey had no meaningful role at the company and was silently furious over it.

He used the time to begin a new startup, Square SQ, and go on a media blitz to promote his narrative. While not explaining the nature of his firing, Dorsey went on a wide press tour, accepting almost any interview opportunity that came his way to tell a story framing him as Twitter's sole inventor and the real mind behind the platform. This all came while attention exploded around founders and executives Evan Williams and Biz Stone as Twitter's popularity soared.

As time passed and Twitter's shareholders changed, Dorsey eventually found people sympathetic to his side of the story. Beginning with Peter Fenton and ending with Dick Costolo, Dorsey, through a series of meetings unknown to Williams, won the majority of Twitter's board over to his side. This culminated in October of 2010 with the board informing a blindsided Williams that he would have to step down from his position as CEO. While some frustrations existed over Williams' lack of decisiveness in dealing with Twitter's slowing growth rate and lingering questions of profitability, the firing came mostly as a product of Dorsey's secret campaigning and as such came out of nowhere for the CEO.

While the initial plan would have seen him completely removed from the company, an intervention from Biz Stone (who had been unaware of the coup) led Williams to take on a role as director of product. But as it was with Dorsey, the former CEO discovered his position would be largely ceremonial, and in early 2011, Williams left his day-to-day operations at the company.

Dorsey continues to be the lead name we associated with Twitter, its early days, and its emergence as a social media superpower. One look at Dorsey's nativity and we get a sense as to why Twitter was born when strong Mercury signatures were prevailing in the astral winds:

Dorsey has Mercury ruling the ascendant and midheaven. Mercury is positioned in the 3rd, combust and in detriment, conjunct Neptune – happy to work in the shadows, of a sometimes-mischievous nature, highly distractible, interested in how information is passed between places, etc.

Dorsey's own IC in Sagittarius became Twitter's natal Moon. Squaring these was the Moon/Jupiter opposition of Musk's offer, which by degree fell across Dorsey's ascendant-descendant axis. Dorsey is currently undergoing a Saturn opposition.

Twitter goes public

In keeping with Dorsey's secretive style, Twitter followed steps to confidentially file intent to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and announced this filing to the world... via tweet.

Both the announcement of Twitter's SEC filing and the first trade chart put Twitter's natal Moon on the ascendant; and, importantly, the transiting Moon was in the ascendant at both times. The ascendant carrying the Moon imparts increased volatility to what's done under its auspices. We avoid surgeries at these times, because just as the earth's tides follow and chase the Moon in her orbit, our bodies experience greater flux of bodily fluids when the Moon passes over the ascendant where spirit meets form. As regards stocks, a 1st-house Moon is usually going to coincide with regular fluxes in valuation, the moreso if the Moon is in a mutable sign or disposited by an inferior planet. The Moon is mutable here, but disposited by an 8th house Jupiter in both cases.

Zooming out, we might also say that Twitter has an astrological double-edged sword. The mid-to-late degrees of Sagittarius are clearly rooted in Twitter's key-moment astrology, and remain fruitful degrees from which the company can draw power. But those degrees are occupied by a Moon/Mars opposition in Twitter's foundation chart, and we can't pick and choose what parts of the configuration we import– they come in as a pre-configured package.

By placing so much emphasis on the mid-late degrees of Sagittarius, Twitter left itself uniquely vulnerable to hard transits that can hit the organization everywhere, all at once. The company might've done better to diversify its zodiacal anchors, aligning its big moments so that we aren't left with one load-bearing 'zone' of the zodiac which could threaten the entire enterprise if attacked or provoked too aggressively and consecutively.

Have a look at Twitter's stock performance when both malefics triggered Twitter's sensitive zone, Mars by conjunction and opposition, and Saturn by successive conjunctions – and note how it contrasts to the steady climb of sister social media company Facebook's stock during the same period, shown by the green inset graph.

NB: I've plotted 22° Sagittarius as something of a midpoint mile-marker, because Twitter's sensitive range is somewhere between 19° - 26° Sagittarius. Saturn finds its term between degrees 19° 00' and 24° 59' Sagittarius.

We're in a repeat of this period now – Mars just stationed in opposition to Twitter's sensitive degrees in the bestial (back) half of Sagittarius. There's nothing to trade anymore, the company's private, but advertisers are backing out at breakneck pace. Musk recently warned that bankruptcy isn't off the table, and some analysts are giving Twitter days before it falls. #RIPTwitter is currently trending.

Hard road ahead

Trouble has followed hot on the heels of Musk's rash decisions since taking over Twitter. After firing the content moderation and privacy teams, Twitter may no longer be GDPR-compliant, and may be forced to restructure its business practices from a less advantageous position if it wants to continue doing business in European member states. Domestically, national security concerns have been voiced about the downstream effect of Musk's changes, particularly as regards Saudi Arabia's financial investment in the platform. From Democratic senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy:

Making jam from this mess of berries

Just Wednesday, Musk has told a judge that he's "finding somebody else to run Twitter over time." The very same day, Musk gave the employees he hadn't already yet fired until end of day to decide whether they were ready to commit to Twitter "hardcore" – if they didn't submit a Google form professing their commitment by 5pm Eastern, they were to take a severance package. Some are leaving that Musk didn't realized he needed to keep the operation running; he's now asking some of them to come back. Advertisers are hesitating, legal compliance is in question for key demographics, and both journalists and governments think these signal cause for concern.

Some have begun to connect a few other dots. During the mass global protests of 2020, Twitter played a crucial role in improving both transparency and line-of-sight for the everyday person around the world. Awareness shifts perspective, and the approach of the old guard better advantages Musk, the son of an engineer/developer who extracted extreme wealth from a colonized South Africa and the land underfoot. Twitter has never been Musk's friend, nor the friend of his shareholders; a disruption of this open information market has certain benefits for the empire-minded.

It's unlikely to be easy going over the next few years. Saturn enters Pisces, and as it does, it will oppose Twitter's Mercury before moving on to trigger Twitter's Mars in Gemini and Moon in Sagittarius by square. Saturn's involvement is important activity to watch. For Twitter, its transits seem to coincide with a shake-up in leadership (e.g., Twitter's recent Saturn opposition in 2021 saw the final days of Jack Dorsey's leadership and the promotion of Parag Agrawal to the position of CEO).

But there are problems even more immediate. The next two lunations, centered on Twitter HQ in San Francisco, directly point to issues with Twitter and its CEO.

The New Moon of 23 Nov is at 1° Sagittarius, and it strikes Musk's natal Saturn/Neptune opposition. Musk's Saturn is at 1° Gemini, exactly conjunct the New Moon's 2nd cusp – financial problems are mounting, and more should be revealed in this period. Given Twitter's natal Moon, we should note 24° Sagittarius on the 9th cusp (law, legal issues, a sense of falling from status as the 9th falls from the 10th). The lunation's 10th-ruler, Saturn, is transiting over Musk's natal South Node and Mars.

The Full Moon that follows is conjunct a retrograde Mars and lands right on Twitter's natal Moon/Mars opposition. Twitter's natal Saturn (4° Leo) is on the ascendant. Musk's Sun is on the 12th cusp. Within these two figures, Jupiter will station in Twitter's natal 9th house.

Heading into this very challenging astrology, we find Twitter employees being quoted in tweets like the following:

And major accounts reporting widespread outage concerns:

Reuters thinks Twitter might not make it to morning. As a Twitter user, I'm struggling to remain optimistic about the platform's future. I do believe there's still time before a total shutdown... but I trust the astrology's suggestion that there'll be a lot of weeping before there can be sowing, and Musk may only now be beginning to realize how imminent the threat of total loss is.

Errata – this post was original sent using a foundation chart for Twitter based in New York City. This has been updated to align with the more conventionally held assumption that Dorsey was indeed in San Francisco when sending that first tweet. Thanks to Kent Bye and Chirone Shakti for their help in tracking down sources on this front.